Selim II
1524 – 1574 · 50 years · Istanbul · Middle East
Reign: 1566 – 1574 (Ottoman Empire)
Son of Suleiman and Hurrem and the first sultan not to lead his armies in person, he ruled through Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. Cyprus was conquered and the fleet destroyed at Lepanto in 1571.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Nakkaş Osman, Şemâ'ilnâme, 1579, Istanbul, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Н.… · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 9 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 49 years older
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 23 years younger
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 41 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 51 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 40 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 6 years younger
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 8 years younger
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 28 years younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 28 years younger
- Feodor I — last Rurikid tsar, under whom the Moscow Patriarchate was founded, 33 years younger
Middle East
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 30 years older
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 19 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 2 years younger
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 22 years younger
Africa
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 25 years younger
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 18 years older
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 32 years younger
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 81 years older
Asia
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 18 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 19 years younger
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 10 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 13 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 13 years younger
- Yi Sun-sin — Korean admiral, 21 years younger
Americas
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 40 years older
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 39 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 15 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 2, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 2, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 5, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 8, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 10, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 18, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 19, Europe
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — aged 21, Americas
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — aged 23, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1555–1561 Saint Basil's Cathedral — aged 31, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — aged 32, Asia
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — aged 32, Asia
- 1569 Union of Lublin — aged 45, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 47, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 48, Europe